Twisted Destiny
Episode 3: Confusion at Corsica
by Masamune


"Timers on fuel tanks set for an hour. High power explosives set on mobile suit storage; they should go off in another forty minutes. The generator under the mobile suit release area will destroy most of the mobile suits that are operational. And these here will take care of most of the assembly line."

Alex Vendetta set the last bombs for 45 minutes, figuring that when the generator and fuel tanks erupted nobody would really come running to the assembly area, which would be destroyed five minutes later. And then he would have completed his mission for that day. He had arrived in Corsica early that morning and nothing had gotten in his way while he penetrated the factory. Corsica is a very old and close together factory. If one of the Gundams attacked the only thing Corsica had was it's vast supply of Leos and Aries, plus a strong Specials force. He slunked away into the darkness. Now he just had to wait and escape.

Duo awoke to the sounds of many people yelling. He rolled over in his bed to look at the time. Almost midnight. He rolled and tried to go back to sleep but the people outside were still yelling. Apparently whatever was going on outside was pretty damn important. Duo rolled out of his bed and walked to the door still dressed in his black pajamas.

"What a day," he yawned to himself. "First those creepy yellow suits show up, then I have to wreck that damn Alliance ship. Can't a guy at least get some sleep around here?"

He walked out onto the deck to find Howard and a few staff standing by a large metal pod. It was battered and beaten up as if it had been through a battle. The night was dark but lights from the ship were on and Duo noticed one of the crewmembers leaning over something.

"Is he alright?" Howard asked.

The crewmember stood up. Duo then saw that it was a young man that he had been tending to.

"He'll be ok," the salvager said. "He's a bit banged up and he swallowed some sea water. Nothing that'll kill him though."

Duo moved closer to get a better look at the man they had pulled onto the ship. He was unconscious; a silver mask lay near him. He was wearing an OZ uniform and Duo could only guess that he was one of the people that had been on the Marina. As much as he didn't want to Duo realized that if they let the man stay here he could easily find out about Shinigami and his plans. He went back into his room to retrieve a pistol.

"No Duo," Howard told him quietly. "He won't be any threat to you. I've decided to take him in as our guest. I won't have you harm him." Duo turned to face him. Howard did have the Deathscythe in a hidden area under the storage area. But still it was too dangerous. "Duo… you really have no choice. He stays with us until an OZ ship can come to pick him up."

"If you keep him here then I might very well leave," Duo pointed out.

Howard looked at the floor, his sunglasses catching the light. "Duo he won't be a threat to you."

"You can't promise that."

"No maybe not. But Duo, you're one of us, a salvager like us."

The Deathscythe pilot faced Howard. He had once been that, just a salvager, just a regular guy. But now he had become the God of Death. It wasn't so simple anymore. More then anything else he wished he could return to that life, to normal boring life.

"I used to be normal Howard," he said seriously. "But now, because of this time of battle I need to fight. I can't be just a regular guy anymore. Shinigami, I…we must fight so those normal guys don't have to. That's the reason why I should be the only one fighting."

"That will never work. Nothing can be achieved alone," Howard told the young pilot.

"You would be surprised."

"Finally back online," Quatre was sitting in his Sandrock, drinking from a mug of hot tea. It had taken him just a few minutes but now he could receive transmissions and his radar worked. "Corsica at 4:30INF huh?" he drank from his mug. "Well I'll never get there in time. I just hope Rashid can take care of this job for me." He sent a message informing Rashid that he had received the information too late and that he was so if he worried them. "It's almost 4:30 over there right now. I'll head for the rendezvous point near Tripoli; I'll meet them there. "

"Two minutes," Alex said as he ran from the shadows of the now burning factory. Courtesy of his submachine gun the generator had malfunctioned and that left only a short time before the mobile suit hangar blew up. "Specials should be here in four minutes, if they're any good." He ducked as a nearby fuel tank exploded. "What the hell? My watch must be slow." As he rose to his feet he heard sirens go off and gunfire around him. He looked up. "Well that explains it," he scoffed as the Gundam Heavyarms fired upon the factory.

Trowa whipped Heavyarms around and locked its missiles on to the mobile suit hangar. He hated fighting, but he just couldn't ignore orders. It was the job he had taken; he couldn't quit now. He went to push the button that he knew would send all of the innocents in the hangar to the other side. Then a flash of light blinded him and he watched in horror as the hangar blew to pieces. Shards of metal spit out across the field.

"What the hell was that?" he gasped.

He had wiped out the entire base guard and it seemed as if no reinforcements were near. He didn't really feel like being around when the Specials showed up though. Below him he noticed a figure dressed in black running across the airfield towards an unoccupied Aries. He turned to fire thinking it was an OZ soldier.

"Goodbye," he whispered to himself.

But he didn't fire. He just watched as the figure ran to the Aries. The dark figure turned and seemed as if to scan right through Heavyarms and look into Trowa's eyes. Then he disappeared as the Aries roared out of sight.

"Why the hell didn't I kill him?" Trowa asked himself. "He saw me and my Gundam. He should be killed. So why didn't I?" He remained motionless inside of Heavyarms for a minute until he heard a mobile suit approach him from behind.

"I am Rashid of the Magnac Army," a voice came. "I order you to surrender now. Exit your mobile suit immediately and you will not be harmed."

Trowa slowly faced the 40-man army. He would not make the same mistake with them. He would kill them all. They had surrounded him but they all looked so relaxed that it was obvious to him that they did not fully comprehend his power. He began to raise his heavy left arm when a sudden explosion rang out from the assembly line facility. The Magnacs turned to look, Trowa fired, blowing the leader called Rashid to dust. He boosted back and used the Heavyarms' wrist blade to slice through an unaware Maganac. The mammoth Gatling gun was raised again and the battle began.

"Lady Une, are you sure that Darlian is the traitor we're after?" from the way Treize Kushranada appeared it seemed as if he had no interest in the answer. He was lounging in an armchair aboard his yacht reading and ancient tattered book entitled War and Peace. A report from General Septum had just reached him. Apparently the Alliance had major concerns about the attacks by the five Gundam units. And now they had large quantities of proof to believe that Darlian was a spy for the rebellious colonies.

"Yes and Mr. Treize a message has been sent to you from Lt. Trent, that engineer that you ordered to design those two new mobile suits. The Zodiac and the Tallgeese. I believe that if Zechs has his choice he will choose the Zodiac. It did considerably better in the tests. And whichever suit Zechs gets I believe Major Soldat will receive the other." She looked up from the report and frowned. "But Mr. Treize sir, don't you think we are giving these two soldiers a bit too much power?"

Treize barely stirred. "You're not jealous are you Lady? We're simply providing superior mobile suits to superior pilots. With those10 Gundams around we really need to keep our forces strong. You have noticed lately that only OZ facilities are being attacked haven't you?"

"Of course sir but I thought there were only 5 Gundams involved in Operation M."

Treize put down his book. "There were, however five identical suits have been destroying bases worldwide. Have you seen the footage yet of that attack on the Kiev base? Of course you have. Those mobile suits are unlike any I've ever seen. Technically the speed that they fly at should be enough to pulverize the entire human rib cage."

"Maybe they are just mobile dolls. Like the things Tuborov is designing."

Treize walked over to a desk and pulled out an old faded photograph. He returned to where Lady Une was and showed here the picture.

"My God!" she gasped. "It looks almost identical to the Zodiac suit. But the cockpit is different; it doesn't have any control sticks! How can anyone pilot such a thing?"

"This is one of the earliest existing blueprints for a mobile suit. It was made by Dr. Lobo, an incredibly intelligent man that worked for the Novatech Research corporation before the rise of the Alliance. Novatech was taken over shortly after these prints were produced. Back in the 1900's an art form called 'Anime' was formed. This kind of cartoon frequently featured gigantic robots that eventually became the basis for mobile suits today. Dr. Lobo truly believed that he could create a mobile suit with unfathomable power."

"He was thrown in jail for stealing large amounts of gold from L1 almost 80 years ago. Back then mobile suits weren't even around. Later after he died they found out that the metal he had stolen wasn't gold. It was just coated in it. They never found any of the metal but they knew it wasn't gold."

"Correct my lady," Treize's eyes narrowed. "It was gundanium."

Une's eyes went as big as saucers. "But!"

Treize waved a hand in order to settle her down. "Please my lady, you shouldn't be so shocked. Remember that L1 was the first place that gundanium was ever found. Dr. Lobo knew very well what he was stealing. The Alliance didn't want to make the people panic so they created a smoke screen. It seems to have worked. But now Lobo's invention has been found, his lab was destroyed six years ago but now somebody and not just a run of the mill rebel has this weapon."

Lady Une looked down at the blueprints. The suit has actually been created, years before. A weapon of that power had existed for such a long time and nobody had ever known about it. But the one thing still bothered her.

"And if you're wondering how any human can survive such a suit," he always seemed to know her thoughts. "As long as man has existed he has attempted to use his brain to its full capacity. For a long time the perfect weapon was thought to be a human being that could use his mind to the fullest extent. But of course that's not possible. However - "

"A soldier with telekinetic power you mean sir?" Lady Une interrupted. "But those were only fairy tales made up before the colonies even arose. No such person has ever existed."

"Lady - you have seen the gurus and prophets of this world. They have powers that would be something akin to whatever we are dealing with here. Whoever these five mystery pilots are, they are most likely not even human anymore. They've evolved past that. Ways of forcing these telekinetic powers to be shown have always been torturous, disgusting methods. Often the subject goes insane. But now I can only wonder and imagine how, after so many years of trying, there are now true psychics on this Earth."

"AHHHHHH!"

"What the hell where is it? Where's the enemy?"

"It's impossible to see in this fog!"

"He just attacked the port side of the ship. It's one of those golden Gundams."

A dark figure was sitting inside of his mobile suit. He would let the soldiers try to regroup and give them a fair shot at defending against him. He was almost startled when a screen with the image of an Alliance soldier appeared on the right side of the cockpit. The dark figure laughed.

"Amazing", he said in a cold, slightly amused voice. "I never would have thought that in this fog anyone would be able to see me. It's fantastic that you managed to find my transmission frequency as well. Who exactly are you?"

"Major Kaiser Soldat of the Specials," the young dark haired man on the screen responded. "I order you to abandon your mobile suit and surrender."

"Hahaha, I am simply called Shadow, Major Soldat. And you will find that my Mirage is more of a match for you, then you could ever imagine. But because I admire your abilities and because I'm done here, I think I shall spare your life. In fact I will leave the base as you have asked me to."

"Wise decision Shadow." The brown eyes glared at the man in the golden enigma called Mirage. "But may I ask you why you were that nasty black mask over your face? Are you afraid to show it?"

Shadow laughed callously. "This is my identity," he pulled at the black cloth that garbed his entire body. "In battle I become, well what you see before you. I wear this whenever I can. Sometimes I am forced to just pull my hat down and transform into a warrior that way."

"What the hell are you talking about? Transform?" Soldat responded.

Shadow sighed, "You wouldn't understand. Maybe one day I'll explain it to you but not today. It's 5:19PM at the sound of death."

"What the HELL are you talking about!" Soldat repeated. Then a loud explosion roared as half of the base was engulfed in flames. "What the hell? You bastard! I'll kill you!"

The video screen was blank but Soldat heard the dark assassin say, "I am already dead. I never existed, I am only a shadow, an illusion."



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